'Not the end': protesters pack up encampment

During negotiations on Friday July 26, the University of Newcastle (UoN) agreed to the disclosure of partnerships with Israel and all investments and research in defence and security-related industries, UoN Students for Palestine member Leon Flint said.

The group also asked for continual meetings to review the university's ethical investment guidelines but Mr Flint said this had not yet been guaranteed.

The students set up tents on the Callaghan campus 76 days ago to protest the university's ties to weapon manufacturers and Israel. They agreed to pack up the encampment by 5pm on Monday, July 29.

The students had zeroed in on partnerships with Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which they say are complicit in Palestinian fatalities.

UoN Students for Palestine member Anjali Beames said the encampment closure came with a mix of grief and hope.

"It was a place where we've been for 76 days, where we've shared meals, where we've made friends and connections and dreamt of a better word," she said.

While the physical tents would be gone, this was "not the end" of UoN Students for Palestine, Ms Beames said.

"It is the beginning of a new chapter in tactics and strategy and in how we are going to affect change," she said.

The group said they would continue to push for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions and demilitarising education.

The university said it would continue to engage with students around ways of demonstrating.

"We remain engaged with students in discussing ways to protest and exercise their right to free speech," Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Kent Anderson said on Monday.

In a statement on Thursday July 25, Mr Anderson said the university would engage with protesters about ways of demonstrating without camping permanently on campus.

"We are working with protesters regarding the retrieval of personal items left on University grounds," Mr Anderson said.

Encampment protests in support of Palestine were erected across Australian universities earlier this year, including at the Australian National University in Canberra, where police were called, the University of Sydney, and at the University of Melbourne, where some students faced expulsion.